1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a reading/writing apparatus of the type which uses a disk as an information recording medium and, more particularly, to a disk loading device for loading and unloading the reading/writing apparatus with a cartridge containing a disk.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
A known disk loading device disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 62-8362 employs a loading motor which is used exclusively for loading and unloading purposes. In operation, a tray carrying a cartridge accommodating a disk-type recording medium is moved to a predetermined position, and the loading motor is started to drive a pulley through operations of gears and shafts so that a belt wound on the pulley is made to run, thereby causing a holding member fixed to the belt to move along guide rails. A slide member connected to the holding member and a clamp member secured to the slide member are moved together with the tray as a result of the movement of the holding member. Pins which are provided on the slide member engage with S-shaped slots formed in side walls of the tray so as to slide along these slots from lower horizontal portions to upper horizontal portions of these slots in accordance with the movement of the slide member, whereby the tray and the clamp member are moved also in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the sliding movement of the slide member.
Other commercially available disk loading apparatus also employ motors which are exclusively used for loading and unloading purposes, independently of spindle motors which drive disks during reading and writing of information.
These known loading devices function appreciably well but still involve problems when considered from the view point of the current trend of development of disk-type information handling apparatus including reading/writing apparatus and related peripheral devices.
The first problem pertains to cost. Namely, the known loading device in general employs numerous parts or components such as the loading motor solely for loading and unloading, reduction gears, parts of a mechanism for lifting and lowering a cartridge holder and so forth. Thus, the cost of loading devices occupies a considerably large part of the cost of the whole information handling system.
The second problem pertains to size. The known loading device is composed of numerous parts or components, as pointed out above, and occupies a large space which undesirably increases the size of the whole apparatus.
It is highly desirable that the number and sizes of the parts or components of the disk loading device be reduced, considering that the number of parts will be further increased in disk-type information handling apparatus of the kind described to cope with future diversification of functions. The term "loading device" is used in this specification to mean a device which not only loads a disk cartridge but also unloads the same from the disk-type reading/writing apparatus, and is referred to also as a "reading/writing device" in this specification.